


There's always somebody around

by orphan_account



Category: Dear Evan Hansen - Pasek & Paul/Levenson
Genre: Angst, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Minor Evan Hansen/Jared Kleinman, Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, Trans Evan Hansen, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25948381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Emma Hansen and Zoe Murphy have a girls night out
Relationships: Evan Hansen & Zoe Murphy
Comments: 7
Kudos: 14





	1. Rollerskates and a trip to 7-11!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! So a huge thank you to antpelts for letting me use Emma in this! All credit when it comes to Emma goes to them! (apart from her love of rollerskating that was my fault)
> 
> TW:panic attacks and anxiety in general! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

Emma checked her phone for what seemed like the 50th time today. Because of course Zoe had texted her.

_Em calm down, Zoe had rehearsal today, there's a big performance coming up. She's just busy. She's not going to leave you on read because you were way too self-conscious to reply to her when she said bye._

She put her phone back down onto her cluttered bedside table and sunk into the pillows behind her. Emma was over thinking it. Like usual. So instead of thinking about Zoe, Emma decided to glare at her nails in hopes that they'd suddenly become a much more interesting colour then blue. Her arm flopped onto her mattress as she turned her head to look at her phone. It was placed precariously on top of the edge of her bedside table, it was messy, which Jared liked to point out. Repeatedly.

The second Emma's eyes landed on her phone the screen lit up with a new text from Zoe.

**Zoe: Sorry Em, ran out of milk so I had to get some more of the soy bullshit mom's making us drink on the way home. Btw do you like rollerskating?**

Zoe knows Emma likes rollerskating. Zoe also knows that Emma wants to check out the new rollerskating place in town that's just above the bowling alley. Emma sighed reaching for her phone to type a reply.

**Emma: Zo. If you insist on dragging me out my house on a Friday evening to go hang outside a 7-11 after you get sugar high, the least you could do is be aware that I like rollerskating.**

She smiled knowing Zoe's reply would be just as bad as her own. Zoe was like that. All over dramatic and funny. One time she'd laughed so much milk came out her nose. Because that was Zoe. She was loud and dramatic, a far cry from the quiet girl in jazz band she was in high-school. College was definitely doing Zoe some good.

**Zoe: I'm highly offended that you think I don't know you like rollerskating. I think everyone at school knows, especially with all the ranting about the new place above the bowling alley you've been doing. But. Say it louder for the people in the back.**

**Be there in 10 xx**

Emma had been ready since she'd gotten the first texts from Zoe half an hour before hand. So the next 10 minutes passed and were all too long and too short at the same time. She'd only started to space out when a car horn blared from outside, followed by a text from Zoe stating the obvious, that she had arrived.

She rushed down the stairs and out the door quicker then you could say antidisestablishmentarianism. Which for Emma wasn't long at all. Zoe rolled down the window of her VW beetle with a smile on her face. "Hey Emma! You look gorgeous! Ready to paint the town red?" Emma rolled her eyes climbing into Zoe's passenger seat, "Zo, we're going rollerskating. There isn't much, painting the town, to do.". Zoe sighed dramatically, handing Emma the aux cord "Play anything, as long as it's not Cell Block Tango. Jared's made me suffer enough."

Emma scrolled through her playlists before settling on Popular from Wicked. As much as she wished she could hit the top note in Defying Gravity, she couldn't. So Popular it was, but then again Popular was more appropriate.

Zoe giggled pulling out the parking lot outback of Emma's apartment complex. "Emma are you seriously playing Popular right now? Jared's corrupted you in his theatre kid ways." Zoe teased Emma's choice of song before giving up and singing along.

"-Especially great communicators, did they have brains or knowledge? Don't make me laugh! They were popular! Please, it's all about popular!" Zoe rolled her eyes but still wore a smile.

"We're blaming Jared right?" Emma smirked checking the time on her phone before looking back up at Zoe. "Oh, we're definitely blaming Jared. His fault." Popular faded out and the first few notes of Candy Store played before Zoe turned it off. "No. Connor had an unhealthy obsession with Heathers when he was 15. Never again." Emma smiled, it was hard for Zoe to talk to her about Connor. Especially after her Senior year. But then they broke out in giggles "Connor liked Heathers? That must've been painful!" Zoe grinned showing off her perfect teeth. "You have no idea how many times I had to listen to Freeze Your Brain. It was insufferable."

It wasn't long until they pulled up outside the bowling alley. They locked up the car walking in, then upstairs to the rollerskating place. "Zo. You ready to be dragged around?" that earned Emma a glare in reply.

They got onto the hardwood floor and Zoe almost immediately fell over. "You were saying you'd drag me around?" She stuck out her hands for Zoe to take. Once their hands we're interlinked she guided Zoe around. "Yeah, you're doing it." Zoe rolled her eyes for the 8th time that night. "Says the person skating backwards." Emma resisted the urge to let go of Zoe and instead pulled them to the nearest wall. "Here. You stay and watch." before Zoe could protest she pulled her hands away.

She skated around for a bit smiling the whole time. Zoe was clinging to the walls for life in a futile attempt to catch up with her. So as she circled another time she spun around and extended a hand to Zoe. "Sorry I left you. Want me to drag you around again?" Zoe perked up "Thought you'd never ask." Emma winked and pulled her back out.

They skated past other people who glared at Emma for skating backwards and at Zoe for being her overly dramatic self. As the night moved on Emma tried to push away her anxiety. Sure, she'd made up with Zoe but all the things came crashing back.

_You lie to everyone, all the time. It's your fault Zoe had to basically reinvent herself after the stunt you pulled in Senior year. You could've just told them. But no._

Jared had said it wasn't her fault. But being with Zoe brought it all back. All the terrible lies she'd told to herself and other people. Her sight grew fuzzy around the edges. Her throat closed and her heart sped up. The feeling of being underwater crashed over her, her chest felt heavy and she couldn't breathe. She was underwater and she _couldn't_ breathe.

"Hey Emma, look at me." Zoe's voice echoed around her. All she wanted to do was have a good night. But she'd ruined it with her anxiety. "Em, open your eyes." a hot tear burnt on it's way down her cheek. She opened her eyes to see Zoe crouching in front of her. "Hey, breathe with me ok?" Emma tried to match the other girl's breathing. They'd somehow made it to one of the benches that were littered around the place. Her breathing was better and her heart had slowed to a steady pace. Her head ached, pulsing with each of her hearts beat. Emma was shaking.

After a few moments Zoe spoke, "Are you ok? You scared me Em." when she looked up at Zoe her brows were pinched together, face sad and calm at the same time. It was so similar to how she looked when she was a Junior and Connor had just. Emma didn't like the familiarity of Zoe's expression. She picked herself up off the bench and with a determined smile grabbed Zoe's hands pulling her back onto the hardwood floor. "I'm better thank you, now come on! I'll show you how to skate properly!" Zoe's face relaxed as Emma spun them around. "Ok, ok but we're stopping at 7-11 later." she grinned pulling Zoe around once again.

It was around 10pm when they got kicked out. Zoe had just started getting the hang of skating without Emma's help. She'd exclaimed on multiple occasions that it was unfair how good she was. Emma had teased her in response earning the 90th eye roll from Zoe. The manager had to tell them it was time to leave, so at 10pm they'd walked back to the car and driven to the nearest 7-11. "Are you seriously taking me to 7-11? Jared's going to be so pissed if I come home high on caffeine."

Zoe had to pull her by the arm into the 7-11 itself. The only other customers were a boy in a red hoodie with huge headphones accompanied by a taller boy in a blue sweater and stripy shirt. They were buying slushies and an unnecessarily endless amount of jellybeans and recees peanut butter cups. Zoe hopped onto the slushie machine the second they left. "Cherry, Strawberry or Blue Raspberry?" this time it was Emma's turn to roll her eyes. "Cherry is the only flavour that doesn't taste of pure sugar or drain cleaner." Zoe giggled, passing her a cherry slushie and sipping her own incredibly blue one. "True but, this one's blue." They walked back out to the car spotting the two boys from earlier leant up against a red PT cruiser.

"Where to next?" Emma glanced at Zoe from the passenger seat, it was nearing 11pm and they were still going around town. "Well, almost everywhere's closed and you can't get into bars as you're not 21 yet." Zoe seemed to consider something for a second before taking an exit onto a by-pass. "A La Mode's 24 hours right? We should go get ice cream!"


	2. Why don't we grab a scoop at A La Mode?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Names on tables, Ice cream and a very worried Jared Kleinman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is in Zoe's perspective! So I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Zoe's obsession with everything artificially blue and edible is actually taken from my friend who has that exact obsession. 
> 
> No warnings for this chapter, I think.

Zoe pulled into the parking lot outside of A La Mode. It was just how she remembered it. A small 50's style diner with a bright neon open sign in the front window. 

"Their ice cream is homemade! So any flavour is great but I recommend the bubblegum." Emma giggled from beside her, "I swear you're addicted to everything blue! If we go out once you're 21 and you order a blue drink I'm disowning you." Zoe grinned wiggling her eyebrows, "I'll take the risk because everything artificially blue is delicious." Emma ended up in a fit of giggles and slid down in her seat. "If you don't stop laughing I'm going to have to explain to Jared why you're broken!" Zoe undid her seat belt and climbed out her car. She walked over to the passenger side and yanked the door open causing Emma to fall backwards "Zoe!" she squeaked in frustration.

Once inside they ordered two scoops of bubblegum and a single scoop of pistachio. The ice cream itself was amazing, and Zoe recognised the booth they were sat in almost immediately. "Oh my god, this is the booth Connor used to demand we sit in, when I was 11 he wrote our names on the underside of the table. I wonder if it's still there." Emma glanced around cautiously before ducking under the table. Zoe looked around once again before following. They both looked up at the bottom of the table before something caught Zoe's eye. There, amongst all the used gum and stains from other the years, scratched into the wood was ' _Connor and Zoe Murphy_ '. 

She smiled fondly at the memory of her brother crawling under the table whilst their parents were preoccupied with an out of state call. She'd joined him and watched as he wrote ' _Connor and_ ' before handing the key to their dad's Mercedes to Zoe. He'd whispered "Come on Zo, lets leave a mark! When have you ever gotten in trouble? It's our table until the end of time!" she'd felt like a juvenile delinquent committing acts of teenage rebellion as she scratched her name into the wood with her own father's car key. And here it was 9 years later.

"It's there Em." she grazed her fingers over the faded scratches, smiling wider. Zoe caught Emma's eyes and giggled "We're 20 year olds hiding under a table!" Emma smirked seeming to notice this and pointed upwards.

They slid back into their seats as if nothing had happened at all. With the only proof they'd been gone being their sightly melted ice cream. "I can't believe Connor wrote your names on the underside of a random table!" Zoe broke out laughing, she couldn't help it and in between laughs she said "I scratched my name on there, not Connor, he did his own name then before writing mine he let me do it." Emma smiled softly at Zoe before realising something, "You used a car key didn't you?" she knodded putting a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth, "Yeah, how'd you know? Like, it's pretty hard to tell so how'd you know?" Emma raised her eyebrows and winked not saying a word before shoving more I've cream into her mouth.

They sat there eating for a little while before Zoe's phone screen lit up. **Jared Kleinman calling...** She raised an eyebrow at Emma before pressing accept. She'd barely put her phone to her ear before Jared was going haywire on the other end. "Woah, Jared, calm down." Emma looked up at the mention of her boyfriend. Zoe heard a long sigh from the other end before Jared spoke "Zo, I don't know where Em is. It's nearly 1am and she's not home yet." Zoe pulled her phone away from her ear glancing at Emma then up at the clock, sure enough it read 1am. "Zoe what's going on? Why is Jared calling you?" Emma's eyebrows were pinched together, her expression serious and scared. She lifted the phone back to her ear, "Zoe! Are you there? I said I can't find Emma, she's not answering my texts and her phone goes to voice mail." she sighed looking at Emma for a second then knodding to the clock on the wall.

Had it been 3 hours already? Sure they'd been at 7-11 for half an hour, then the drive to A La Mode was equally as long, but they couldn't have been there for 2 hours. Zoe quickly told Emma to check her phone. To which Emma replied by showing Zoe her phone, which had a dead battery. She rolled her eyes putting Jared on speaker. "Jared you're on speaker." Emma looked down at Zoe's phone sat in the middle of the table, "Sorry Jared, my phone died." Em was whispering, there was a long pause. Then. "Oh thank fuck you're ok!" Zoe picked up her phone it was on 15%, enough power to get them back into town but not enough to get them all the way to Emma's or for Zoe to drive home. "Jared, I'm bringing Em home now, we'll be an hour." Zoe knew what was coming next. And apparently so did Emma, "We're at A La Mode, it's an hour away, I'll be back soon, don't wait up I have a key.". Zoe hung up and practically dragged Emma to the car.

The drive home was fun. They blasted crappy songs from the 2010s, making sure to turn up every One Direction or Jason Derulo song, and making sure to scream along to 'What makes you beautiful'. When she checked in the mirror her tounge was bright blue. She needed gas so at the next stop she bought some other artificially blue drinks and candy before continuing on the way home. Zoe was determined that for the rest of the night the only things she'd consume would be blue. Telling Emma that earned her an exaggerated eye roll and questions about her life choices.

Zoe pulled into the parking lot outside Emma's apartment building, immediately spotting Jared hunched against a wall on his phone, with Candy Crush reflecting onto his glasses. Emma's nose turned red and she quickly said bye to Zoe, rushed out the car and practically launched herself at Jared, who gave Zoe a small wave. She was glad they made it work. 

By the time Zoe reached her driveway it was 2:34am. She knew her parents were asleep by now. So instead of going into her own room she opened the door to what used to be Connor's room. It was basically empty now but there were still traces of him, his bookshelf was full of his comics and classic literature, there were dents in the walls where he'd punched it and a small box on his desc which contained a few pictures of them together and at the bottom of it laid Connor's phone. Sometimes Zoe liked to look through Connor's camera roll or their text history. Nothing else but the things they used to share. There was no getting rid of what remained of her brother and Zoe was glad. She grabbed a charger from her room before lying down on his bed. She gripped the fabric hard and curled into a ball. Tonight was a good night. But a night when she still needed her brother there...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, hello! Thanks for reading this! Thanks again for letting me use Emma antpelts. I loved writing her!
> 
> Sorry about the ending I am currently finishing off the editing at 5:30am and I'm a walking existential crisis. So sorry.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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